“At no point did I decide that I wanted to be homeless.”
Dean is 21 years of age. He’s from Dublin.
He’s been in and out of homelessness since he was 16 years old.
He has been accessing the homeless services of the Peter McVerry Trust since 2017.
‘Paint Me’ is a poem written by Dean about the life of a homeless person in Dublin, and how hard it can be.
He addresses how difficult it is to engage in conversation with someone once they realise that you are homeless, and discusses how important it is for us to understand that: “at no point did I decide that I wanted to be homeless.”
Dean is 21. He has been accessing our homeless services since December 2017 and has been in and out of homelessness since the age of 16.
He wishes to challenge the stereotypical views people have on homelessness in his poem “Paint Me”. Watch him perform his piece in this video. pic.twitter.com/J7i3QyVlwG
— Peter McVerry Trust (@PMVTrust) July 25, 2018
Ireland is currently facing a homeless crisis that is showing very little signs of improvement.
According to the Peter McVerry Trust, Dean is one of 912 people between the age of 18-24 experiencing homelessness. The June figures, released on Tuesday, showed that 9,872 people across Ireland are experiencing homelessness.
For more information, as well as a number of ways of getting involved, you can visit the official Peter McVerry Trust website here.
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